McGinley shines as U-20 footballers earn deserved draw against Mayo
Roscommon full-back Dan Casey gets his pass away despite the best efforts of Mayo's Darragh Reilly during Wednesday evening's Connacht U-20 Football Championship contest at Dr. Hyde Park. Pictures: Gerard O'Loughlin
Roscommon produced a hugely encouraging second-half performance to rescue a draw against Mayo in an entertaining opening round of the Connacht U-20 Football Championship at Dr. Hyde Park this evening.
The Rossies were six points behind at the end of the first quarter after conceding three goals, but they recovered to show plenty of character and eke out a share of the spoils, helped by Shane McGinley’s contribution of 1-8.
Mayo’s three first-half goals stood to them, and looked set to put them on the road to victory.
The visitors’ inside line of Darragh Beirne, Niall Hurley and Darragh Reilly looked sharp, and it was Beirne that opened the scoring after three minutes.
Six minutes later, centre-back Paul Gilmore made a marauding run, and Niall Hurley applied a fine finish. When Hurley added a point soon afterwards, Roscommon looked to be in real trouble, trailing by five points.
To their credit, they responded with a scoring charge, led by the excellent Shane McGinley.
The Strokestown forward landed an inspirational score to get his side off the mark before he flicked Shane Walsh’s delivery to the net to haul his side back into contention.
However, two Mayo goals in as many minutes were a hammer blow to Noel Dunning’s side.
In the 15th minute, Darragh Reilly played his mark expertly into the path of Finbar McLoughlin, and the Westport wing-forward glided past a couple of poor Roscommon challenges to emphatically net his side’s second goal.
It got worse for Roscommon when goalkeeper Seán Allen’s attempted pass was intercepted by Reilly, and he had the simplest of tasks of palming into the empty net.
A McGinley free stopped the rot momentarily, but Hurley’s second point of the evening left Mayo 3-3 to 1-3 ahead after 23 minutes.
But Roscommon mustered a second response with a couple of Bobby Nugent points from play followed by a ’45 from McGinley after Mayo goalkeeper David Dolan had made a splendid save to deny the Roscommon number 13.
At half time, Mayo led by 3-3 to 1-6.
The teams shared the opening eight scores in the second half, but it was noticeable that Roscommon’s subs were making an impact as they began to snaffle more possession around the middle of the park.
With ten minutes left, Mayo were 3-7 to 1-10 ahead but Roscommon began to dominate further with Senan Lambe and Shane Walsh exerting their influence, as did substitute Ryan Conlon with two points.
But Mayo will feel that they should have put the game to bed when substitute Brendan Collins blazed wide with the goal at this mercy. The visitors also hit 11 wides over the hour.
McGinley (free) and Conlon left just a point between them before Mayo goalkeeper David Dolan clattered into Ryan Dowling as the Kilbride player fisted a goal chance just the wrong side of the post. McGinley pointed the resultant free and the sides were level.
Roscommon full-back Dan Casey was also shown a black card in the game’s dying embers but as Mayo explored avenues to kick a winner, the home side’s defence held firm to earn a deserved share of the spoils, which sets them up for their trip to Markievicz Park to play defending champions, Sligo, on Wednesday evening next.
ROSCOMMON: S. Allen; J. Brady, D. Casey, T. Morris; J. McGreal, S. Lambe, E. Carthy; C. Ryan, S. Walsh; D. Hagney, D. Flanagan, R. Heneghan; S. McGinley (1-8, six frees, one ’45), B. Nugent (0-3, one free), R. Hester. Subs used: R. Conlon (0-2) for Hagney (27 mins), E. Kerins for Flanagan (27 mins), C. Harley for Brady (half-time), O. O’Flaherty for Ryan (42 mins), R. Dowling for Hester (49 mins).
MAYO: D. Dolan (0-1, a ’45); D. Slattery, J. MacMonagle, L. Silke; J. Mulchrone, P. Gilmore, Y. Coghill; D. Duffy, C. Dawson; F. McLoughlin (1-0), C. Keaveney, T. O’Flaherty; D. Beirne (1-2, one free), N. Hurley (1-2), D. Reilly. Subs used: E. McGreal for Coghill (34 mins), B. Collins for Mulchrone (37 mins), O. Cronin (0-2) for Reilly (37 mins), T. Lydon for McLoughlin (47 mins), D. O’Brien for Dawson (60 mins).
Referee: J. Gilmartin (Sligo).
